Digital Camera World » sharpening

Image sharpening: how to bring out more detail in your favourite photos

jmeyer — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:01:03 +0000

In this Photoshop Elements tutorial we show you clever ways of bringing out more detail through image sharpening, while keeping some of the side effects to a minimum.

When you view a photo on your camera’s relatively small rear screen, it may look crisp and sharp.

However, it’s only when you view the image at actual size on your home computer’s larger display that you realise it’s not quite in sharp focus. This means some key details may look slightly blurred and lack real definition.

The image could also look soft due to your camera’s built-in anti-moiré filter, which is designed to minimise unsightly blocky patterns and false colours caused by complex textures.

Fortunately, Photoshop Elements has a range of effective sharpening tools that enable you to reveal detail in soft-focus areas and create a print with more punch.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to sharpen up JPEGs in the standard Photoshop Elements editor and then move on to teasing out delicate details in a soft-looking raw file using the Adobe Camera Raw editor.

Photoshop Elements enables you to make a soft shot look sharper by increasing the contrast around the edge of objects in the scene. This gives delicate details more definition and impact.

However, by increasing the contrast you can also add unsightly artefacts such as harsh black or white halos around contrasting edges.

This gives the game away that the shot has been artificially sharpened, and you can also end up exaggerating picture noise caused by a high ISO setting when you sharpen your shot.

Here, we’ll show you how to recognise sharpening artefacts and keep them to a minimum.

Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 1-2

01 Open the start file
Open Photoshop Elements, click on the Quick editor tab to explore its sharpening options. Choose File>Open and browse to your start file. Click Open. The compressed JPEG image will open in Photoshop Elements’ Quick Editor.

02 Zoom in
To see how soft your shot actually looks, click on the Zoom tool. Click the 1:1 icon in the top options bar to see the shot’s pixels at 100%. Our image is quite soft, so the delicate details lack impact. Click the Sharpen icon on the right to access a range of sharpening preset thumbnails.

PAGE 1: Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 1-2
PAGE 2: Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 3-4
PAGE 3: Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 5-6
PAGE 4: Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 7-8
PAGE 5: Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 9-10
PAGE 6: Photoshop image sharpening step-by-step: 11-12

Unsharp Mask: how to sharpen photos for a crisper finish

jmeyer — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:00:53 +0000

The Photoshop Unsharp Mask filter gets its name from a traditional darkroom process used to sharpen an image. The Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop works by increasing the contrast around the edges in an image, which makes them look crisper and sharper.

Our original image

In this photo editing tutorial we’ll show you how to crop and size an image for printing and then sharpen it using the Unsharp Mask filter.

How to sharpen photos with the Unsharp Mask filter

01 Crop and resize
Open your start image in Photoshop. Use the Crop tool to crop the image as desired. Choose Image>Image Size, enable the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image check boxes and set your desired resolution and size. We set Resolution to 300 Pixels/Inch and Width to 16 Centimetres. Click OK.

02 Launch the filter
To sharpen the image, choose Filter> Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. Click a portion of the image that contains detail such as the centre of the flower. This then appears in the filter dialog box sized at 100%.

03 Set the Amount
Set the Amount to 150%. The Amount controls how much sharpening is applied to the image. You can readjust this later, but for now, you want to see the results of adjusting the other sliders clearly.

04 Rradius tweaks
The Radius sets the width of the haloes around the image edges. The larger the Radius, the wider the haloes are. For a sharp image, set the Radius to something between 0.5-1.5. We used a setting of 1.0 here.

05 Adjust the threshold
The Threshold setting controls how much difference in brightness there must be between adjacent pixels for them to be considered an edge. A small Threshold value sharpens everything and a large one sharpens nothing. We set the Threshold to 10.

06 Fine-tune the result
Readjust the Amount to fine-tune the result. When sharpening for your monitor, adjust the Amount based on what you see on your screen. When sharpening for print, oversharpen a little because printing softens the image a little. Click OK to apply.

Image Sharpening: do it the subtle way

jmeyer — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:00:30 +0000

Even famous photographers can find it a challenge to capture a perfectly focused photograph, especially when shooting with a camera set to a wide aperture. The resulting shallow depth of field can make it difficult to get all of the key areas in focus, which makes image sharpening in the digital darkroom all the more imperative.

Some cameras use a low-pass filter to help reduce the false moiré-pattern colours produced by complex textures. But this in-camera filter tends to blur the image, producing a soft-focus result. It’s also hard to tell if a shot is actually sharp when you view it on the camera’s LCD screen.

There’s no substitute for getting a shot sharp in-camera, but Photoshop Elements does have a range of commands designed to help you reduce blur and reveal more of the image’s delicate details. The image sharpening commands work by increasing the contrast around the edges of features such as eyelashes and hairs, giving them a more defined appearance.

Our original image

The downside to image sharpening is that it can also add unsightly artefacts. For example, if you increase the spread of the contrast change it can add ugly white or dark halos around objects.

Image sharpening can also emphasise things such as the picture noise produced by a high ISO setting. It’s all a case of getting the balance right.

Here, we’ll show you some tips and techniques you can use to tease out extra detail from a soft-focus shot while keeping ugly artefacts at bay.

01 Duplicate your image
Open your image. If the Layers palette isn’t visible, go to Window>Layers to open it. Drag the Background layer’s thumbnail onto the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to copy it. By sharpening the copy you can compare it to the softer start image.

02 Zoom in on key areas
To see the how sharp the shot really is, grab the Zoom tool from the Tools palette. Tick the 1:1 button in the options bar to see the photo’s actual pixels. Hold down the spacebar to activate the Hand tool and drag the image to view the eyes. Delicate details such as the eyelashes look a little soft.

03 Tidy up blemishes
If you sharpen the image now, you’ll exaggerate the smudges of make-up under the eyes. To remove them, grab the Spot Healing Brush from the Tools palette. Choose a soft round tip from the Brush Preset picker with a Size of 35 pixels. Tick the Content-Aware option. Click on the smudges to remove them.

04 Recognise artefacts
Go to Enhance>Unsharp Mask. Increase Amount up to 500% and Radius to 10 to create typical sharpening artefacts. The shadows are clipped and lack detail, while highlights are blown out. White halos cling to the contrasting black eye shadows, and even picture noise and freckles have been exaggerated.

05 Remove halos
Pop Radius down to 2.0. This stops the edge contrast change from spreading too far, which helps to avoid halo artefacts. Reduce the Amount to 143% to make a less drastic contrast change. Tick the Preview box to compare the sharpened shot with the original version.

06 Increase Threshold
When sharpening, you can end up exaggerating image noise and low-contrast blemishes such as freckles. By increasing the Threshold slider’s value you can get the Unsharp Mask to leave the low-contrast areas (such as of patches of skin) alone, while still sharpening darker details such as eyelashes.

07 Adjust Sharpness
Click the Unsharp Mask’s Cancel button. Let’s try Enhance>Adjust Sharpness instead. This newer command gives you a larger preview area and a few extra controls. Set Amount to 130% and Radius to 2.0. Hold the mouse button down on the preview window and then let go to see a before and after version.

08 Explore extra options
For a more subtle sharpening effect, set the Remove drop-down menu to Lens Blur. This creates a less harsh contrast change, which helps stop darker details becoming clipped. The More Refined box sounds good, but it tends to reveal more unwanted picture noise. Leave it unticked.

09 Stop motion blur
When shooting a moving subject you risk capturing motion blur. The Motion Blur drop-down menu is designed to help you counteract this problem using an angle slider, but this is a fairly ineffectual tool. It’s better to shoot with a faster shutter speed to avoid motion blur, and then brighten up the under-exposed shot.

10 Compare before and after
Leave the Remove option set to Lens Blur and click OK. Click the Background copy layer’s eye icon on and off to show the sharpened layer and compare it with the original Background image. The eyes now look much sharper, but you can also see unwanted noise in the soft-focus areas of the girl’s hat.

11 Add a layer mask
The top of the hat is well out of focus, due to a shallow depth of field, so you can’t sharpen it. You’ll need to limit the sharpening to key features such as her eyes, nose and mouth. This will keep sharpening artefacts to a minimum. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.

12 Sharpen key features
Select the Background copy layer’s mask. Hit Ctrl+I to turn it black and hide the sharpened layer, revealing the blurred original. Grab the Brush tool and select a soft 300-pixel tip. Click the mask. Set the Foreground colour to white, then spray to sharpen the key features while leaving the blurred hat unsharpened.

An easy way to sharpen photos for printing

jmeyer — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:25:08 +0000

Getting any photo in perfect focus can be a challenge, and particularly when you’re shooting a moving subject like our high jumper above, you’ll need to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action at a key moment. We used a speed of 1/800 sec to capture our athlete clearing the bar with the minimum of motion blur.

However, as the shutter speed was very fast we had to open up the aperture to f/5.6 to get a decent exposure, which meant that our depth of field was very shallow.

Fortunately, the focal point was on the athlete’s face and upper body, and the shallow depth of field produces an attractive bokeh that throws the distracting background details out of focus and directs attention to the subject.

Our original image

Although the key features of our athlete are fairly sharp in our original image directly above, we can create a print with maximum punch by sharpening them a bit more in Adobe Camera Raw.

The way to sharpen photos is by increasing contrast between pixels on either side of edges; however, the process can exaggerate noise, and create artefacts such as light or dark halos clinging to edges.

Below we’ll show you how to sharpen a raw format image to tease out delicate details in key areas without adding artefacts, to produce action shots with real impact.

01 Improve composition
Open the image you would like to sharpen. Using Photoshop Elements, the Raw file will open in Adobe Camera Raw by default. We’ll start by cropping the shot to make the athlete more prominent in the frame; it’s worth cropping first, so that you don’t waste time editing areas that won’t be in the final shot. Click and hold on the Crop tool and choose Constrain to Image, then draw a crop as shown and hit Return.

02 Adjust the exposure
Before sharpening it’s worth making sure a shot is correctly exposed; if an area is overexposed it will be missing detail, so you won’t be able to sharpen that area effectively. Set Recovery to 30 to pull back missing highlight detail. Set Clarity to +45 to increase the local contrast and bring out detail, and to boost the colours set Vibrance to +20 and Saturation to +10.

03 Check the sharpness
Click the zoom menu at the bottom-left of the interface and choose 100% – you can only tell how sharp a shot really is by looking at its actual pixels. Now click the Detail tab. By default, the Raw editor sets the Sharpening Amount to 25 – this setting controls the strength of the contrast adjustment. Drop Amount to 0 to view the shot with no sharpening applied – you’ll notice that the facial detail becomes quite soft.

04 Adjust the sharpness
Set Amount to 50 to increase the contrast along edges, and to increase the width of the edges over which sharpening is applied set Radius to 2.0. Leave Detail at the default 25; if you push it higher you run the risk of sharpening and exaggerating the picture noise caused by the fast ISO setting of 400. To pull back the sharpening and minimise noise in the smooth background tones, drag the Masking slider to 80; this limits the sharpening to more detailed areas.

Final Tip
To see which areas are being sharpened, hold down Alt as you move the Masking slider. At low values the entire shot will be white, indicating that all areas will be sharpened. As you drag the slider right the background will turn black; only the remaining white areas will be sharpened.

How to blur the background in Photoshop and sharpen foreground detail

jmeyer — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:30:24 +0000

The ability to sharpen an image after you’ve taken it is a saving grace. Sometimes a shallow depth of field or a wrongly chosen autofocus point can mean that key details in an image are soft. Using the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop can bring back these lost details, and prevent an otherwise great photograph from being destined for the recycle bin.

However, you can also have the opposite problem, where parts of a photo are too sharp! If you’ve used a narrow aperture or two subjects are particularly close together, you can have too much of your image in focus (find out when to use wide and when to use narrow apertures).

The trick here is to apply the Gaussian Blur filter to the overly-sharp areas, to throw them out of focus.

Finding the right balance between sharp and blurred areas can be tricky, but by using layer masks you can precisely control which areas each effect is applied to. Layer masks also have the advantage of being non-destructive, so if you make a mistake, it’s a simple matter to correct it.

In this Photoshop tutorial, we’ll show you how to blur the background in Photoshop and sharpen detail in your foreground interest. Here we’re going to apply two layer masks to our snowy egret image: one to sharpen the fine feather details and one to blur out the background.

To create a more natural transition between the two adjustments, we’re going to fine-tune the layer masks using the Brush tool with a soft-edged tip; this will not only ensure that the right areas are sharp and blurred, but it will make it harder to tell that the image has been edited.

All you’ll need for this Photoshop tutorial is Photoshop Elements 6 or above and just 10 minutes of your time. Let’s get started!

How to blur the background in Photoshop Elements

Step 1: Apply sharpening
Open your start image. Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Ctrl+J, then click the Add Layer Mask button in the Layers palette (for Elements 8 or earlier add a Levels adjustment layer below ‘Layer 1’, then click on the ‘Layer 1’ and go to Layer > Create Clipping Mask).

Click back on to the image thumbnail of ‘Layer 1’, then go to Enhance > Unsharp Mask. Set Amount to 85% and the Radius to 1 pixel.

Step 2: Tidy it up
The bird has a lot more detail, but the background has been sharpened too. Click the layer mask for ‘Layer 1’, then select the Brush tool.

Choose a soft-edged Brush, set the Size to 200 pixels and change the Opacity to 100%.

Make sure that the foreground colour is set to black, then brush over the background. For more detailed areas, zoom in to 100% and change the brush size to 15 pixels, then continue brushing.

Step 3: Apply the blur
Press Ctrl+J to duplicate ‘Layer 1’ and its mask (in Elements 8 or earlier duplicate the layer, then add a mask to it as before). Click on the new layer mask and press Ctrl+I to invert it.

Select the image thumbnail again and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set Radius to 12.5 pixels and click OK.

Any areas that are white on the layer mask will have the blur applied, and any areas that are black will still be sharp.

Step 4: Tweak the mask
When you apply a high level of blur to an image, it’s likely that this will bleed into the subject of your photograph.

To remove this blur from the edges of the bird, reselect the Brush tool, set the Size to 50 pixels and the colour to black.

Zoom into the image, then carefully brush the blur out of the feathers and branch in the foreground. If you make a mistake, press X to switch to a white brush, and paint the blur back in.

How to set your in-camera sharpening

jmeyer — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:35:59 +0000

The easy option for digital sharpening is to ramp up the in-camera sharpening setting. However, some shots need more sharpening than others, and if you apply too much then image quality can fall. Digital sharpening isn’t applied to RAW files, but if you shoot JPEGs, any in-camera sharpening is permanent.

With that in mind, here is how to set your in-camera sharpening. For this exercise we used a Nikon DSLR, setting the sharpening via Nikon’s Picture Control menu. This process will be similar in other camera brands, such as Canon’s Picture Style menu.

Step 1
Choose Set Picture Control in your camera’s Shooting menu. There are six Picture Control presets. Highlight one, then press the right arrow key to enter the Quick Adjust screen. Here, you can make five levels of modification to the overall effect.

Step 2
With Quick Adjust, sharpening is altered automatically in line with other parameters. Tap the down arrow to highlight Sharpening and change it manually. There are 10 levels of adjustment – the yellow underline indicates the original setting.

Step 3
Pressing and holding the camera button with the magnifying glass and ‘–’ sign brings up a grid. Contrast is the vertical axis on the graph – the higher the contrast, the greater the perceived sharpness your image will have.

Photoshop sharpening in 3 easy steps

dcworld — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:08:23 +0000

This useful technique will help bring sharper detail to soft-looking wildlife shots without adding unwanted artefacts.

When photographing wildlife with a wide aperture setting (such as f/5.6) you might find that the animal’s body is sharply focused while its face appears a bit soft. This is because wide aperture settings produce a shallow depth of field, making it difficult to get all of an object in focus. When faced with a small amount of blur, you can use Photoshop Elements to sharpen up the problem areas and reveal more detail. Watch this video to find out how it’s done.

Take sharper shots

dcworld — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:26:59 +0000

Soft images are the result of poor focusing and camera shake. Follow our four simple steps for pin-sharp perfection

Great shots with superb composition and perfect metering can be easily totally ruined by a lack of sharpness. Fortunately, making sure that your shots are consistently sharp is relatively easy if you follow a few simple rules…

Great shots with superb composition and perfect metering can be easily totally ruined by a lack of sharpness.

Fortunately, making sure that your shots are consistently sharp is relatively easy if you follow a few simple rules. Use our simple four-step guide and you’ll be a real sharp shooter and you need never bin another blurry shot…

1. Use a tripod whenever possible

Our number one rule is to always use a tripod if you think you‘re going to be shooting at shutter speeds lower than your lens‘ focal length (so / 25 sec for a 00mm lens). Yes it‘s a bit of a hassle but it‘s worth it. Don‘t raise the centre column, or your tripod will effectively turn into a less stable monopod.

2. Shutter speed is essential

Selecting the correct shutter speed and aperture combination is vital. Use Shutter Priority mode and start with a minimum shutter speed of around / 25 second. If it‘s still too dark, bump up the camera‘s ISO setting so you can stick to a faster range of shutter speeds. If your camera has a mirror lock setting, then switch that on too.

3. Brace it!

If it‘s not possible to use a tripod, look for a natural camera rest instead. Brace yourself against a pillar, tree or wall and tuck your arms into your chest while controlling your breathing. Make sure you press the shutter in a smooth movement – don‘t jab it.

4. Stabilisation

If your camera has image-stabilisation feature then switch it on. Stabilisation means you can shoot at slower shutter speeds while reducing the risk of camera shake. Remember, though, image stabilisation won‘t reduce any blur caused by people moving in the shot.

Take your sharpest photos ever

dcworld — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:19:53 +0000

From tripods to cable releases, we give you the best advice to help you take the sharpest shots ever

There’s nothing better than checking the LCD on your camera after a shot to reveal amazing composition and light. And there’s nothing worse than checking the sharpness back home on the computer and seeing a blurred and wasted frame. Sharpness is everything and lack of it is one thing that can wreck an otherwise fine shot.

Sharper images are a combination of many factors. Some things you wonít be able to control, such as the quality of glass in your lens, but the good news is that the majority of factors are in your hands with disciplined shooting techniques and the right gear.

Ever heard the phrase ‘buy cheap, buy twice’? Well this has never been truer than for camera equipment. Tripods and monopods should be sturdy, heavyweight and well-constructed bits of kit. They should be able to hold your camera and lens without feeling rickety. Find a tripod or monopod suited to your camera kit and needs by taking your gear into a shop and trying them out.

Better pictures and sharper images are also the result of good techniques. Choosing the correct shutter speed, one which is greater than the focal length you’re shooting, and knowing your own hand-holding threshold will instantly transform your photography. Bracing against trees, walls or buildings will all help to get sharper pictures whenever you shoot without a tripod, regardless of shutter speed.

Using a smaller aperture and accurate focusing will help to keep your photos pin-sharp from front to back when shooting landscapes or vast cityscapes. Use a combination of the right gear and the best techniques to improve your success rate and you’ll soon be coming home with the sharpest images you’ve ever taken.

Top tips for sharp pictures

Tripods

Avoid extending the centre column and if you’re shooting at waist level always collapse the lower, thinner legs first.

Lens quality

Always buy the best glass you can afford and check it out before you buy.

Handholding

Invest in a battery grip to make portraits format pictures easier to take.

Shutter speed

Shoot at a shutter speed that’s greater than the focal length you’re shooting. That means if you’re using a 500mm lens your shutter speed should be a 1/640sec.

Sweet spot

Shoot around your lens’ ‘sweet spot’, which is about f/8 or f/11. It’s best to avoid extreme apertures such as f/22 or f/2.8.

Focusing

Focus a third of the way into the frame for sharper landscape pictures.

Bracing

Walls, fallen trees, fences or even your mateís shoulder can be used to lean on and take steadier pictures.